The Mason Bees on our back fence are working hard today laying their eggs, packing mud to delineate their cells in the nesting tubes I have provided for them. Here is a nice shiny female resting for a moment on the roof of one of the shelters.
These terrific pollinators have completely filled three cans of 6 inch tubes so I put up another milk carton full of tubes this afternoon. Here a female is adding mud to the seal of the tube she has filled with perhaps 8 to 9 eggs, each in its own cell with a supply of pollen and nectar to feed the larvae.
There are going to be a whole lot of bees here for next year. I have been propagating these wonderful insects for about 25 years now. If you want to know more about them get my book, "THE ORCHARD MASON BEE" that I wrote 24 years ago. If you live in Bellingham, Village Books has it. Or Knox Cellars Mason Bees can sell you one, or Amazon sells them too.
And I had some time to work on the new tenor Pinecone. It is boxed up now, the glued joint smoothed and faired in, and a heel plate attached as seen here.
This Heel plate will be trimmed and faired to slope backwards a bit. Once the fretboard is attached the neck and this heel will be sculpted and sanded. Next project then is the fretboard.